This review aims to answer the following questions: (1) What is the impact of school-based decision-making on educational outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Review Question 1)? (2) What are the barriers to (and enablers of) effective models of school-based decision-making (Review Question 2)?

Overall, the study concludes that devolving decision-making authority to the school level can have a positive impact on educational outcomes, with magnitudes of effect in the median range for education programmes, but that this is only likely in more advantaged contexts in which community members are largely literate and have sufficient status to participate as equals in the decision-making process.